Univision 41 Ratings Tops In Sweep In NYC.

With the highest ratings in the history of Spanish-language TV in New York, Univision 41 (WXTV) here has accomplished a feat which many had thought impossible: It finished the just-ended November 2001 sweep ahead of one of New York’s six major, English- language commercial TV stations in total viewership for the first time in sweep history.

Univision 41 scored an all-time high 2.3 Nielsen Station Index (NSI) rating and 5 share, sign-on to sign-off (6 am to 2 am, Monday through Sunday) for the November sweep to take sixth place in the market from Fox-owned WWOR Channel 9. The latter scored 1.8/4 NSI, the lowest overall sweep rating and share ever scored by a major VHF commercial TV station in the history of New York TV. Univision 41’s 2.3/5 NSI rating/share is a 64% increase over its 1.4/3 score in the November 2000 sweep.

In addition, the 5 pm, 6 pm, 6:30 pm and 11 pm weekday newscasts on Univision 41 all scored record high ratings during the November sweep, as did the Univision breakfast news show, “Despierta America” (Wake Up, America), locally. Moreover, the 5 pm and 6 pm weekday news programs on Univision 41 both beat the competing news programs on one of New York’s big-three network-owned stations, earning third place, their highest rank ever. The achievement is a first for Univision 41.

* 5 pm news: Univision 41’s 5 pm weekday news magazine, “Premier Impacto,” scored a personal best 3.6/7 NSI, up 100 percent from the 1.8/4 it scored in the November 2000 sweep, to seize third place in the 5 pm to 6 pm time period from WCBS-TV Channel 2. The latter scored 3.2/6, down nine percent (9%) from its November 2000 average of 3.5/7 for “CBS2 News at 5.”

* 6 pm news: Univision 41’s 6 pm weekday local newscast, “Noticias 41” with anchors Rafael Pineda and Denisse Oller scored a personal best 4.1/7, up 64% from last year’s 2.5/5, to take third place in the 6 pm to 6:30 pm time period from WCBS/2. The latter scored 3.8/7, up slightly from the 3.6/7 it scored with “CBS2 News at 6” last year.

* 6:30 pm news: Univision 41’s 6:30 pm network newscast, “Noticiero Univision,” with anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas jumped a whopping 74% from its November 2000 average of 2.3/4 locally to score a personal best 4.0/7.

* 11 pm news: Univision 41’s 11 pm newscast, “Noticias 41” with anchors Pineda and Oller, jumped 42% from its November 2001 average of 2.4/4 to score a personal best 3.4/6.

* Breakfast news: “Despierta America,” Univision’s network breakfast news program (7 am to 10 am), jumped an astronomical 175% from 0.8/3 to 2.2/7 NSI to beat “CBS Early Show” (7 am to 9 am) with Bryant Gumbel locally. The CBS entry scored 0.9/3, down 31% from 1.3/4 in November 2000.

The November 2001 sweep (November 1 – 28, 2001) is one of four, annual four-week periods in which audiences of TV stations nationwide are measured in order to set advertising rates.

Each New York Nielsen Station Index rating point represents 73,010.6 TV households.